Authorities have filed 100 more criminal charges against the operator of a crematorium where hundreds of corpses have been discovered.
Mr Ray Brent Marsh already faced 16 counts of theft by deception for allegedly taking money for cremations he never performed at Tri-State Crematory in Noble, Georgia.
The 100 additional theft by deception charges were filed by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
The new counts were connected to 50 of the corpses found at the crematorium. For each body, one count was filed for taking money from the families and another for failing to give the ashes to the families, officials said.
So far, 331 corpses have been found on the grounds, and only 70 of the bodies have been identified.
The latest charges were filed just hours after a separate judge ruled Mr Marsh could leave jail on $100,000 bond on the original 16 theft charges. Mr Marsh is still in jail and could be arrested again if he makes bail.
Meanwhile, recovery workers began another day of clear-cutting the 16-acre crematorium grounds.
Authorities have said it could be late summer before all the bodies are identified.
"Everybody involved in this process, from the word go, is suffering some kind of emotional strain," said Mr David Ashburn, the Walker County emergency director. "It's things that you and I were never meant to be exposed to."
AP